In my view the future of business leadership, will improve through professional development, peer support, collaboration and networking. School business leaders must broaden their knowledge, develop their understanding and stay current.
If you are new to business management then building a diverse network base is going to be really important. Conferences are great way to do this.
Conferences
I thought it would help to highlight some of the big events that are happening over the next 12 months. Here is a brief summary of some of the events coming up… remember any of these details can be subject to change!
Summer Term 2017
The Academies Show
- Date: 26 April 2017
- Venue: London – ExCel
Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL): Conference for Business Leaders
- Date: 16 May 2017
- Venue: Birmingham – Metropole Hotel
- Details: this years theme is ‘Next Generation Business Leadership’; keynote speakers: Nick Gibb, Malcolm Trobe CBE, Sian Carr, Val Andrew, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson
- Link: http://www.ascl.org.uk/events/calendar_event-detail.ascl-conference-for-business-leaders-2017.html
National Association of Headteachers (NAHT): School Business Management Conference
- Date: 19 June 2017
- Venue: Birmingham – The Studio
- Keynote speakers: Russell Hobby, Valentine Mulholland and David Laws
- Link: http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/naht-events/conferences/national-sbm-conference-2017/
Autumn Term 2017
National Association of School Business Management (NASBM): Annual Conference
- Date: 16-17 November 2017
- Venue: TBC in previous years it has been in Birmingham
- Link: http://www.nasbm.co.uk/Conferences/National-Conference
Spring Term 2018
BETT Show
- Date: 24-27 January 2018
- Detail: BETT is a leading education technology event, which has world wide recognition and is held in the UK
- Link: http://www.bettshow.com/Content/About-Bett
Business Cards
It is really useful to get some business cards printed in advance to hand out. Exchanging business cards also saves you needing to pick up too many brochures; ask for any information to be emailed.
Recommendations
If you have been to a really great event that’s not on my list please let me know in the comments.
#BeTheChange
The most valuable resource that school business leaders have access to is their network of peers. We need collaboration and system improvement to drive progress through expanding our own perspective outside of our own organisation and knowledge boundaries.